Virtuous character is not decided in a moment; it is formed by predetermined resolutions acted upon in each subsequent opportunity for vice.
For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue and virtue with knowledge.
~2 Peter 1:5
Two books to help young ladies become virtuous women, clearly aside from the Scriptures, are highlighted this week on What I Am Reading Wednesday. I recently finished the first and am reading through the later. Both are rich in vocabulary and principles: the first, no doubt, requiring a dictionary.
This movie version is equal to that of Pride and Prejudice staring Keira Knightley. Don’t be scared off that it begins rather odd.
Laws and principles are not for the times when there is no temptation: they are for such moments as this, when body and soul rise in mutiny against their rigour; stringent are they; inviolate they shall be. If at my individual convenience I might break them, what would be their worth? They have a worth–so I have always believed; and if I cannot believe it now, it is because I am insane–quite insane: with my veins running fire, and my heart beating faster than I can count its throbs. Preconceived opinions, foregone determinations, are all I have at this hour to stand by: there I plant my foot.” ~p. 221 Jane Eyre
We know that God is everywhere; but certainly we feel His presence most when His works ar on the grandest scale spread before us; and it is in the unclouded night-sky, where His worlds wheel their silent course, that we read clearest His infinitude, His omnipotence, His omnipresence. ~p. 227 Jane Eyre
Character is not given to us; we build it ourselves. Others may furnish the material, may set before us the right standards and ideals, may give us reproof and correction, may guide our actions and mold our thoughts. But we build our own character. It is we who absorb the good influence about us, adopt the ideals, reach for the standards, and make ourselves what we are.~ p. 30 Beautiful Girlhood
Do you have any character books to recommend? Please leave them in the comments section or send me an e-mail.
That is what I am reading this Wednesday; what about you?
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